It’s time for another in my series on how games do level generation. Let’s take a look at SLIGE, a random level generator for Doom. The original Doom. That’s right, we’re going back to the early 90s for this one.
Doom was one of the first games designed from the ground up to friendly to modding, and consequently the community around it exploded. In the years following its release, level packs and tools started to circulate for free. It was only a matter of time until someone designed a random level generator.
SLIGE was one of the first. It quickly became infamous because newcomers would often attempt to pass off the level it creates as their own. But they’d inevitably get caught – SLIGE levels have a very distinctive feel, as you can see in the video below.
SLIGE may not be the most sophisticated level generator out there, but its fame caught my eye. It was under development by author David Chess for a number of years, and so has lots to explore. In this article, we’ll delve into how exactly it works.